A Longer Summer -- I like it!

Just as Memorial Day is the unofficial beginning to summer in the US, Labor Day is its unofficial end. Due to a simple quirk of the calandar, this year Memorial Day fell on the earliest date and Labor Day will fall on its latest date. That gives us (unofficially) a few more days of the summer season!

I like it!

I will take as many summer days as I can get.
It does appear that this summer might be warmer and wetter than usual. We are getting an early glimpse of the wetter part as it looks like today will be another dreary and damp day here in the Ozarks of SWMO. I don't mind the gentle spring rains that we've been getting recently, but the severe weather is a different story. There has already been severe hail damage and flash flooding in our area during some late April/ early May storms, and the forecast looks like the summer may be full of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. 
I guess summer has its downside, too.

My morning coffee on the deck is a wonderful way to begin a summer day, even an unofficial summer day such as today. 

As I have been contemplating the personal therapy that regularly posting seems to provide me, I have been trying to envision what Out of My Hat will look like in the coming months. The end of July will mark 20 years that I've been publishing here and the blog has changed as much as I have.
And that's a good thing!
I'd like to write more often, but don't like that this has turned into a type of daily diary. I guess I will have to figure that out. I'd like to be writing about something or sharing something that is beneficial rather than posting about another day in the life of John.

Here's a little celestial trivia for you.
Did you know that the earth is slowing down during this part of its annual orbit?
Because of its elliptical orbit it will reach its greatest distance from the sun in early July (aphelion). This is the point at which the earth is travelling its slowest. As the earth gets closer to the sun, it travels faster. It takes several days more to get from the March equinox to the September equinox than it does from the September equinox to the March equinox. 
Science is cool.

Enjoy your longer summer (my northern hemisphere friends)!

John